This invention relates to an improved surgical pin driver for the insertion of metal pins into bone.
Conventional surgical pin drivers have included a manually operated apparatus having a plurality of clamping members which were operated by a handle screw threadedly mounted to a mounting head of chuck for mounting the clamping members. Generally the handle was movable relative to the stationary mounting head and movement of the handle away from the mounting head caused the clamping jaws to open and movement of the handle toward the mounting head caused the clamping members to close. The clamping members were used to clamp a length of surgical pin or wire which was used for insertion into bone for knitting or pinning of fractures.
Manually operated surgical pin drivers of the type discussed above were subject to disadvantages in use. For example when driving a pin into bone it was initially necessary to open the clamping members for location of the pin or wire therein, close the clamping members and then manually drive the pin into the bone. This was achieved by a reciprocating pivotal movement of the forearm. However, in regard to driving the pin into bone it was necessary to place one hand on the bone so as to close the fracture as tightly as possible and the other hand was used to hold the surgical pin driver and operate as described above in regard to the aforesaid reciprocatable pivotal movement.
Therefore in regard to operation of the conventional surgical pin driver as described above it was necessary to use two hands in regard to unlocking or locking of the clamping members in relation to clamping of the pin or wire in the pin. A two handed operation was therefore essential in relation to adjustment of the pin when already driven into the bone and this was undesirable especially in regard to the fact that it was necessary to release one hand from gripping the bone. This had the unfortunate occurrence of causing separation of the bones along the fracture and thereby causing an unwanted gap between bone fragments. It also increased the danger of further fracturing occurring.
The above problems were exacerbated when it was borne in mind that it was necessary to release and re-grip the surgical pin driver a number of times during the pinning operation.
Another disadvantage of the conventional manually operated surgical pin driver as described above was that often it was uncertain whether or not slippage of the pin in the bone had occurred. Slippage in fact had a tendency to occur especially if the pin was also driven through fatty tissue which may be present in certain circumstances. The only method of detection of slippage was to unload the pin from the chuck by using two hands with the undesirable consequences as described above and compare the exposed length of the pin with another identical pin to assess the length.
Also in the prior art manually operated surgical pin drivers efficient function depended upon proper lubrication of the moving parts. This could only be achieved by water in regard to a surgical instrument and thus the moving parts had a tendency to bind as well as to corrode or rust.
It was also to be appreciated not only were manually operated pin drivers known but also pin drivers were used which functioned in a similar manner to power drills. These power-actuated surgical pin drivers could be operated by one hand and thus the aforesaid disadvantages of manual pin drivers could be substantially alleviated. However, power driven surgical pin drivers were operated by use of compressed air and thus the associated equipment which included gas cylinders mounted on wheels and air hoses was extremely bulky and cumbersome and also extremely expensive. Also all the components required autoclaving between operations.